National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) Presentation

Ali Asghar, advisor to National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), Arshi discussed the company’s challenges and opportunities at the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul on Wednesday.

At the beginning of his address, Arshi gas an overview of NITC to the audience, saying the company has more than sixty years of honorable presence in global energy transportation and is touted as the world’s largest oil tanker company with 69 tankers with 15.5 MDWT of capacity.

He said the International Maritime Organization on October 27, 2016 announced it was going ahead with a global sulfur cap of 0.5% on marine fuels starting from January 1, 2020.

Now that the 2020 date has been confirmed by the IMO, a sharply more regulated shipping emissions sector looms into view in the near term, Arshi added.

“The current global sulfur cap on bunker fuel is at 3.5%,” said the NITC advisor.

The sharp, step change down to tighter sulfur specifications at sea will have knock-on effects throughout the global energy system, he went on to say.

He further said, the cost of the IMO’s regulatory change on the shipping industry is unknown, but every analyst expects it to be large. As well as shipping lines, particularly NITC as major tanker company in the world, the IMO’s decision will also impact refiners, crude oil producers, bunker suppliers, and emissions and air quality.